The national minimum wage will be lifted by 3 per cent – or 50 cents an hour – as announced by the Fair Work Commission this week. This change will directly affect around 1.5 million Australians on award wages.

From July 1 the minimum wage is increasing by $18.70 per week, taking it from about $622 to $640.90 and equating to an hourly rate of $16.87.

Fair Work Commission president Justice Iain Ross said there had recently been almost no growth in the real value of award wages, while other employees had enjoyed substantial pay increases.

The deterioration in the relative living standards of award-reliant workers; the needs of the low-paid; the recent widespread improvement in labour productivity growth; the historically low levels of real unit labour costs; and the absence, in aggregate, of cost pressures from the labour market are all factors favouring a real increase in minimum wages,” he said.

One moderating factor was the superannuation rate increase to apply from July 1.

Read more about super and payroll tax changes here